The French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI is in talks to secure investments of up to $1 billion. One of the key potential investors is the MGX fund from the United Arab Emirates, and negotiations are also taking place with other international partners.
This is reported by Business • Media
Investments and Financing for Data Center Development
In addition to seeking investments, the company also plans to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from French financial institutions, including the state bank Bpifrance. The funds raised are intended to be directed towards scaling computing infrastructure in France, ensuring stable growth of the country’s technology sector.
According to sources, the terms of the upcoming deal are still under discussion. The parties are considering the possibility of revising the company’s market valuation, which was $6.75 billion after the last investment round in 2023. Since its founding in 2023, Mistral AI has already managed to attract approximately $1.2 billion in investments.
European Ambitions and Partnership with the UAE
If the funding round is successfully closed, Mistral AI’s collaboration with MGX could become significant for strengthening partnership relations between France and the UAE in the field of artificial intelligence. Experts emphasize that this is particularly important for European companies, as the AI market is currently dominated by the USA and China.
As part of the strategic partnership, Mistral AI, MGX, and Nvidia are already working on creating the largest data center in Europe, which is being built near Paris. The UAE government, for its part, has announced plans to invest $59 billion in various artificial intelligence development projects.
The investments raised will allow, among other things, the launch of the Mistral Compute service, which is being developed in collaboration with Nvidia and will be equipped with 18,000 Grace Blackwell chips. The funding is expected to ensure the expansion of computing capabilities and the development of cloud technologies for the European market.
“The French government considers Mistral a key player in the strategy for technological sovereignty. The startup receives support not only from European creditors but also from global investors such as Microsoft, Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst.”
It is worth noting that it was previously reported that the company xAI, founded by Elon Musk, raised $10 billion for the development of its own AI projects and the expansion of data centers.